Yo'av Ashriel was born at Kibbutz Ramat David, in the Jezreel Valley, in Israel. He comes from a family of writers. At and early age, he became interested in music and started to play the accordion for Kibbutz performances and folk dance evenings. In 1947, the Kibbutz sent him as their representative to the first folk dance leadership seminar in Israel led by Gurdit Kadman. From encouragement he received from Gurdit, he decided then and there to switch from music to dance.

Yo'av began creating his own dances and became more and more involved in teaching folk dance. After serving in the army for two years, he left the Kibbutz and moved to Tel Aviv. There he married a dancer, and he and his wife Mirale developed such an interest in folk dance that both of them began teaching in Tel Aviv practically every night. He continued to choreograph around 70 dances, some of them very popular. The main influence for his dances was the melody and the images stemming from his life in the Kibbutz.

Yo'av directed several performing groups simultaneously and his own group toured Europe.